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Single Sided Vs. Double Sided SDRAM?

Z

ZzBloopzZ

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Sep 18, 2004
Messages
1,330
Well i bought some Kingston KVR-PC133/256-R and my other system won't boot with it. Then i realized it had memory chips on only one side. Is that the reason why it's not booting up? What's the difference from single sided and double sided? Like a performance difference. Is single sided older technology and doesn't work with newer motherboards?

Thanks,

~Bloop
 
SIngle sided or double there is no difference in the ram. Some manufacturers do it one way why other another. Now as for your ram, what kind of computer is it? also how old is it? Have you updated the bios?
 
Catsonar said:
SIngle sided or double there is no difference in the ram. Some manufacturers do it one way why other another. Now as for your ram, what kind of computer is it? also how old is it? Have you updated the bios?
Click to expand...

Well there is a difference and single sided is better because of the per chip greater density.

Support for either varies when used in dual channel from mobo to mobo with single sided being better supported.

@Catsonar: make sure the ram is not high density (make sure it is industry standard).
 
Here's the difference.

Older motherboards (intel chipset for p3's and pretty much anything p2&k6) require no more than 16mb/chip on a stick of ram. That limits you to at least a single sided 128mb with 8 chips or a double sided 256mb stick (16 chips). You'll note that

Any MB that is compatible with single sided will work fine with double sided ram assuming the speed is sufficient.

The only thing is that some MB's can only handle a certain number of banks (or sides if you want to think of it that way), so it may not work with 3x DS'd sticks but it would work with 2x SS'd and 1x DS'd sticks of ram.

Finally, there are a few other differences between older and newer ram sticks (even if double sided) that may cause the newer stick to be incompatible with older MB's.
 
sounds like you got yourself a SIMM and you need DIMMs... will check with the seller (who referred me to this thread) and make sure he knows.
 
seller confirms it is a dimm... odd. first time i've heard of a dimm with chips on only one side.

does your system need/use ddr sdram?
 
starhawk said:
seller confirms it is a dimm... odd. first time i've heard of a dimm with chips on only one side.

does your system need/use ddr sdram?
Click to expand...

System is a Dell Dimension T600r. I think it's based on the Intel BX. It only supports SDRAM. Not DDR.
 
hmmm... interesting.

ddr sdram is 184 pin. don't know if the two will even fit in the same slot (i highly doubt it) but if you had told me it needed ddr sdram, well, that would have been the reason your computer is acting like a tree stump.

waittaminute... those old comps still had to have... got it!

i bet that either ram slot a or ram slot b is empty.

Edit: about to sign off so i will explain.

computers have memory in banks. this practice originated with the idea of using an expansion card to add memory... and the cards were most definitely not small.
it's now done so that each slot on the mobo is a single bank.
however, the old rule is that the computer must have memory in the first bank to work... and other banks must be added sequentially. this is no longer really true with the advent of ddr as the mobos simply detect where the ram stick is and figure that's bank #1.

it is entirely possible that your computer still uses that old rule... so look for the ram slot labelled "1", "A", etc., and make sure that there is a stick of ram in there. the bank next to it should have the 2nd stick.

and please do be careful to hold the ram by its edges... and an anti-static wrist strap is a majorly good thing to have, even when just installing memory.
 
starhawk said:
hmmm... interesting.

ddr sdram is 184 pin. don't know if the two will even fit in the same slot (i highly doubt it) but if you had told me it needed ddr sdram, well, that would have been the reason your computer is acting like a tree stump.

waittaminute... those old comps still had to have... got it!

i bet that either ram slot a or ram slot b is empty.

Edit: about to sign off so i will explain.

computers have memory in banks. this practice originated with the idea of using an expansion card to add memory... and the cards were most definitely not small.
it's now done so that each slot on the mobo is a single bank.
however, the old rule is that the computer must have memory in the first bank to work... and other banks must be added sequentially. this is no longer really true with the advent of ddr as the mobos simply detect where the ram stick is and figure that's bank #1.

it is entirely possible that your computer still uses that old rule... so look for the ram slot labelled "1", "A", etc., and make sure that there is a stick of ram in there. the bank next to it should have the 2nd stick.

and please do be careful to hold the ram by its edges... and an anti-static wrist strap is a majorly good thing to have, even when just installing memory.
Click to expand...

ooo i'll try that in the morning... i hope its because it wasn't in slot 1/a.
 
yeah... b/c if it's seated properly and that ain't it... them chips got fried.

i don't suppose you touched the circuit board (held it by the area where the heatspreaders would be if there were any) did you?
 
starhawk said:
yeah... b/c if it's seated properly and that ain't it... them chips got fried.

i don't suppose you touched the circuit board (held it by the area where the heatspreaders would be if there were any) did you?
Click to expand...

Neg... been building computers for about 5-6 years man.

I'll test it out on the customers PC whenever he brings it in.
 
i hope it tests positive, dude... cuz i don't want to have to tell the seller that he gives bad ram. that's no fun.
 
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